A place for students to share their experiences of the University of Reading

How I’m Spending My Christmas Break

Congratulations, you’ve made it to the end of term! Now it’s time to spend four weeks relaxing, catching up on sleep, making some headway with course work and of course celebrating the Christmas and New Year period!

I’m looking forward to going back to Norfolk, where my family live and seeing the new house my parents live in. I’ll probably spend most of my evenings sitting by the wood burning stove watching films. Amongst course work for all those January deadlines, I hope to start looking at opportunities for next year, as I’m in my final year and have those scary decisions to make! It became apparent during the lecture for my careers module the other day, that the Christmas holidays is actually a really good time to start looking into options, depending on what you want to do.

I definitely don’t plan to be working flat out though, as after a busy term, I am looking forward to spending quality time with family and friends, preparing for Christmas and celebrating my 21st birthday, followed by my brother’s birthday a few days later. Christmas is one of my favourite times of year, so I’m look forward to several celebrations with the family, due to some of the family living in other parts of the country. I love decorating the house with Christmas decorations, and using my creative skills to help my parents do it in an artistic way; normally I do the tree.

As I’m on a tight budget for Christmas presents this year, I will probably make as many presents as I can and buy the rest cheaply. Making presents yourself can save a lot of money! Homemade truffles have gone down well in the past. I really enjoy making Christmas cards, so will probably make some this year. Due to my parents living in a different part of Norfolk now, I’m looking forward to exploring areas of the county I don’t know and meeting new people. I’m hoping to visit the local Deaf centre, because not only is it fun and great for meeting new people, it also useful for my course. I’m planning to get a Christmas Elf job, or something in retail, to help me save up for next term!

In terms of Christmas celebrations, my family normally open stockings in the morning, before breakfast (including Pain au Chocolat and other pastries!) then go to church, have Christmas dinner, open the main presents and then watch the Queen’s Speech and sometimes play board games. Boxing Day, we normally see family that we didn’t see on Christmas Day.

Hope you all have a lovely break, wherever you go and whatever you do, and if you’re staying in Reading, I’m sure you will have a good time! Merry Christmas and all the best for 2018!